Labels: 2010, Craft, Pincushion

It took me a few years but I finally made good my promise to my daughter. I sat down this morning and made her the bible cover she wanted :-)

I know I have been sitting on this for too long... 5? 6 years? Perhaps even more? I guess the idea of trying to make something to fit was just far too daunting during the busy schooldays. But since it's now the long school break, I have no excuses. LOL!

This lovely huge silver vintage button was not what I picked for the bible cover. I had actually sewn up a smaller, off-white flower-shaped button which I thought matched the white polka dots perfectly (but which my daughter thought otherwise!) so that's how we ended with this one.

Labels: 2010, Bible Cover, Patchwork

This is kind of an intermission in my purple quilt project. I have outstation friends visiting and I needed to get some shabby chic rag bags done for their Christmas gifts.

 Shabby Chic Rag Jean II for a young miss from Sarawak :-)

 Shabby Chic Rag Autumn for a good friend in Kuching :-)

...and Shabby Chic Rag Blues for an old friend in KL :-)

Labels: 2010, Craft, Rag Bag

I managed to get off my butt and started the purple themed quilt a few days ago. I will probably keep this for my own as it will fit in nicely in the purple room of our house.





I chose the crazy patchwork cut and decided to do a king size since I had quite a bit of each fabric.





The outcome was beyond my expectation and I'm eager to finish it up.

I'm thinking of doing a 3 panel border for this massive quilt... starting with pale purple stripes (2" width), followed by purple polka dots (2" width) and finally a fat 5" border using the black rose print. Pretty excited at the prospect but first, to the shops to replenish on diminished stock :-)

Labels: 2010, Craft, Patchwork Blanket

Since moving to Alor Setar some 15 years ago, we have had 1 major flood... in 2005. At its worst, the water came into the compound... it stopped short some 3" below our front door. We actually had quite a bit of fun!!!

We have since moved house, but only one road behind. Anyhow, when the road in front of our present house started flooding on the afternoon of Nov 3rd, we were not too perturbed.



Towards evening, the water had crept inside our compound gates.











Although we heard that the neighbouring town of Jitra was flooding very badly, we were still not too worried. The weather had been fine for the past 2 days and there was no signs of impending rain. We were told the floods were a result of heavy rainfall in other areas and the water was now flowing through to the sea. We expected the water to subside the next day if not sooner. How wrong we were!



By night, the flood waters had completely consumed the compound. This was taken from our upstairs window.


...our sitting room had turned into a Turkish bath.

If not for the split level, we would have lost a lot. We were lucky our girls were home for the long weekend. Among the 4 of us, we had moved up most of our furniture. Whatever that was too heavy, we had raised them up with bricks. To be continued.....

Labels: 2010, Flood

Teabag folding is like Japanese origami except that it makes use of several identical squares (usually 8) folded exactly in the same way. These are then laid side by side or in an interlocking fashion to produce a symmetrical medallion or rosette like the one here. 


For my little weekend project here, I learnt 2 different folds from youtube but for each medallion I actually used only 1. Because I also experimented with a variety of paper and a different arrangement each time, I came up with this huge array of different rosettes. 


And again by changing the placement of the medallion, I had so many variations to the one card... as you can see here.  







Here I tried out a different greeting using another font and in a landscaped setting.


This is the finale of the day :-) I so love this simple cross. It reminds me of why Jesus came down to earth... to save sinners. 


Well, so much for these cards... have a great weekend everybody.

Labels: 2010, Craft, Teabag Folding

Here is my latest creation after the long hiatus. Having rested some, I finally went back to the cutting table and sewing machine two days ago. Yes, it's another shabby rag bag (LOL!) but with some differences ;-)

I still used 5"x5" squares but as you can see, I've scaled down on the number of blocks. Besides the new colour scheme, you'll notice I have incorporated denim. The snipping of the seams is also done further apart. The end result?


To stimulate my idle brain :-) I challenged myself to put in a zipper this round to close up the bag. Like all "first time efforts", I sweated through this one.


You'll be seeing more of these shabby rag bags in the next couple of weeks. I need to run up a few more as Christmas presents. In fact, I'm giving away this one to a dear friend today... Quoting her "...can't wait till Christmas..." unquote. I hope she likes it :-)

Thanks for dropping by.

Labels: 2010, Craft, Rag Bag

Lala-la-lala..... I made another shabby rag bag! And what a stunner she is!!! Don't you just love the colours... and the rose prints? There are 8 different fabrics here but they match up beautifully. I'm keeping her for sure :-)

The great thing about this type of bag is the sewing technique. You can turn the bag inside out for a completely different look! YEH! See mine? I took pains with the inside too making sure that no two squares next to each other were alike. And I did change one or two fabrics.

In my excitement to get things done, I forgot to take pictures of the earlier stages (the cutting, piecing & snipping). Compared to the previous rag bag, it took me longer to sew this one. Using smaller squares (4" x 4"), there was more to do and it was rather fiddly too. Had to be most patient. But the end result was worthwhile :-) Here, the bag is all ready and just waiting to get into the wash.

Labels: 2010, Craft, Rag Bag